Being accepted as an unofficial family member by the refugees he helps is reward enough for Milan Maksimovic, who has been nominated for Citizen of the Year in his Sydney area.
Former refugees, Milan and Hilda Maksimovic, have spent years assisting refugees from Iraq and Syria to establish their new lives in Australia.
The pair works with various organisations, volunteers and church parishes to assist these refugees to gain the essential information they need, such as learning English.
Mr Maksimovic is a former Serbian refugee who fled the former Yugoslavia in 1997, while his wife is an Assyrian refugee.
After leaving his county, Mr Maksimovic worked in the US, Canada, Ireland and Denmark, before marrying Hilda in 2003 and settling in Australia to start a family.
He has been nominated for the Citizen of the Year Award in the Sydney area of Fairfield, an honour he said came as a surprise.
"We’ve been doing this job for years. When we started we didn’t ever dream that we would make such an impact on our community. This was our own experience," Mr Maksimovic told SBS Assyrian.
"What people in Iraq and Syria experienced in 2014 and 2015 was terrible. We started meeting with these people because they invited us to come to their homes.
"Most of the people we meet are widows and one lady told us that her husband was killed in front of their house in Iraq. She came with her two kids and she’s not well."
The pair served together for last 15 years in various ministries, assisting many children.
Over the past two years, they established resource centres in the Sydney suburbs of Smithfield, Fairfield, St Johns Park and Liverpool.
Mr Maksimovic said the work he does with his wife has many rewards, but none more so than being accepted as family by the people he helps.
“It’s not just about providing food and hampers. It’s about showing love," he said.
"She told us that she completely lost hope in humanity and that by talking to us and becoming a friend, her hope has been restored."
Mr Maksimovic and his family also brought goodwill and cheer to refugee families during the Christmas and New Year season, delivering hampers to about 500 families.
“To see their happy faces and to hear their kind words and their gratitude is what keeps us going."
Fairfield City Council's Citizen of the Year Award will be announced on Australia Day.
